14.6.04

According to an article (Nécropole du Moyen-Age découverte dans un jardin, June 12) from France 2, when a family in the little French town of Saint-Nicolas-de-Port began to construct a garden patio, they discovered human bones buried in their garden. They were much happier when archeologists from nearby Metz confirmed that it was a medieval cemetery.

"They're skeletons from the Middle Ages, so much the better!" recounts this relieved resident. "I wasn't sleeping at night the whole weekend, after my son discovered the first human teeth with the first dig of the shovel, and then we had to call the police when we found the bodies," she adds. On Thursday, the regional archeological authority estimated that the bones dated from the 10th to the 15th century. "They were buried in a traditional way, east to west, arms folded and without any funeral marker," said archeologist Jean-Pierre Legendre, underscoring the important of this discovery "for the archeological map" [of the region].